Stephen Reavill
Brand New
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2024
- Messages
- 7
Hey everyone, thanks to @DanielChase for recommending me to join. Hopefully I can work on becoming a full member as time goes on.
So, a little about me I suppose, live up North of most of you between Ault and Briggsdale off of highway 14. Basing go north on 25 until you hit the last Fort Collins exit, then go east about 30-35 miles and that's me. Currently have 5 vehicles which is way too many, A 2018 GMC Sierra 3500 Crew Cab Long Bed SLE 4x4 6.0l gasser it does everything but pass a gas station so that's good, my daily is a 2014 Chevy Cruze 2.0l turbo diesel which is ironic I own one of the largest gas trucks GM makes and the smallest diesel car that GM makes but I like to be unique like that, the Cruze has a couple pieces of the exhaust system gone and a little bit of a tune if you get the idea so fun little car can push into the low 50 MPG range on the highway if you treat it right. Then I have a (Well, 2) 1997 Toyota Century's, v12's fun cars. One is my personal one that I'm trying to rent out on Driveshare/Turo if you're interested in learning more about that let me know. The other Century is currently forsale as I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a car importing business and we'll be bringing in more cool cars and Toyota 4x4's and stuff like that so if you're interested in that we can have that conversation. Final vehicle which is what landed me here, is I have a 1992 Toyota Hilux Surf 2.4L Diesel, Automatic I think it might have a couple inch lift from a previous owner, wide body kit, 33's pretty much stock other than some engine work that has been done, I'll attach some pictures, paint is mostly garbage like a lot of older Toyota's unfortunately. So those are my 5 vehicles currently as a side note I would also recommend Grundy Insurance for those who have collector / imported vehicles even older Toyotas that aren't nice I got on their insurance with my Hilux Surf so clearly they're not that picky, but they also allow you to insure your daily drivers and trucks unlike Hagerty. Can't say enough good things about them as an insurance company I've unfortunately have had to use them fortunately not on any of my import vehicles but they did what they said they'd do and even above that in my opinion not trying to turn this into a sales pitch I have no affiliation but just wanted to share that bit of knowledge as it's good to invest in good protection to keep our beloved Toyotas and others on the road.
So, the unfortunate part of my Hilux which I'll tell the long story here since it's my introduction. Bought it on Cars and Bids in mid 2021 for about $9,800 thought cool not a terrible price. Went from here in Colorado to Phoenix AZ to pick it up, and I was naïve and bought it without really inspecting anything I get it out on the highway after purchasing it to drive it back home and it starts over heating, start looking closer it's leaking oil from front main seal, rear main seal, various other places oil leaks from, ended up having to leave it there, fly back to Colorado, then the next weekend drive down there with my truck and trailer, pick it up and drive back, got it home, found out the new custom Griffin radiator the owner had installed was ballooned, the vertical fluid channels whatever you call them in the radiator that separate the fins got enough pressure to expand and crushed the fins so it was only getting maybe 20-30% of the airflow it should have. Pulled the motor myself, started taking it apart, ordered parts I needed from Australia, Covid's pretty big by this time, my parts get stuck in customs for about 5-6 months. One box showed up like a month before the other box, and of course the 2nd box had the stuff I actually needed. So now it's winter time, don't have a heated shop area and I decide I'd take the motor to a shop in Fort Collins that agreed to take on the project just because they thought it'd be cool kind of a hey I'm in no rush work on this as you have extra time or whatever and just charge me by the hour. They were cool did it, put it back together for me with all of the new seals and motor mounts and head gasket and stuff I bought for it about 3k dollars in labor. Was running mostly okay when they got done other than a lack of power, would only go about 55-60 MPH max and even small hills out here in the planes would slow it down to 40-45 mph by the top. I thought well older small diesel maybe that's just kinda how it is I know they're not a power house at like 90 HP from the factory. Now, it's to the point it has even worse power, it's stalling out if you let the RPM's go to low so even shifting between drive and reverse if you don't rev it up and basically drop it into gear it'll stall out. So it's currently sitting and hasn't moved for awhile. Between buying it, having to go to AZ twice with fuel and last minute plane costs, parts, labor at the shop I took it to, various crap I'm probably 16-17k dollars into this stupid thing and sort of done with it mentally. But I would really like to save it as it's really a good basically 99% rust free vehicle judging by the paint has never been in an accident and repaired don't think it was close to any salt water because of the no rust. So it's a good platform to build off of but I'm stuck between just trying to find a new used engine / trans combo and throwing it in lets say I could get one for I don't know, 4-5k dollars I can do most all of the work putting it in myself and not have to pay much more for labor at a shop, Or, take it to a shop (or maybe, someone here is a backyard mechanic that can help me for cash wink wink) and spend the money to get it rebuilt again and running good but I don't know if the motor is still good after all it's been through without actually being re-machined. I had it at Revhard Motors in Denver for them to do an inspection and they concluded from my memory this was a year or longer ago that the head is not properly shimmed and so they'd be probably in the 3-4k dollar range to get that done plus as it goes at a mechanic other things pop up and you might as well do this and do that while you're there or something else is broken and needs fix then I'm 5 or 6 or 7k into it which I really don't want to be. So any advice on that would be greatly appreciated or if someone wrote me a $9,800 check which is what I paid for it I'd sell it to you and it can be your project instead of mine and you get everything I've bought for it. I personally think getting a new motor for it is the way to go as I can just drop it in (hopefully) and it'll run as a good Toyota should instead of fighting this one. So if someone wanted to buy my motor that's in there now so I can put that money towards another one and you can rebuild it yourself as a project for your Toyota or Jeep or rock crawler or whatever you have going on. I appreciate any advice on the subject or offers for service if you can help fix it up for me but paying shops their 120-150+ an hour rates is just too much money for me at the moment as I'm trying to get the car import thing going cash is king in that business so I need to not spend too much. But heck if you're a good mechanic and want 60 an hour cash maybe we can work that out if we can figure out what it needs done. Now I'm just rambling so I'll leave it at that, but hopeful one way or another I can maybe get this thing running again by late summer or early fall and maybe get into a couple trail rides with you guys as that's the main goal to have fun and enjoy this life and nature while we're still allowed to do so.
So, a little about me I suppose, live up North of most of you between Ault and Briggsdale off of highway 14. Basing go north on 25 until you hit the last Fort Collins exit, then go east about 30-35 miles and that's me. Currently have 5 vehicles which is way too many, A 2018 GMC Sierra 3500 Crew Cab Long Bed SLE 4x4 6.0l gasser it does everything but pass a gas station so that's good, my daily is a 2014 Chevy Cruze 2.0l turbo diesel which is ironic I own one of the largest gas trucks GM makes and the smallest diesel car that GM makes but I like to be unique like that, the Cruze has a couple pieces of the exhaust system gone and a little bit of a tune if you get the idea so fun little car can push into the low 50 MPG range on the highway if you treat it right. Then I have a (Well, 2) 1997 Toyota Century's, v12's fun cars. One is my personal one that I'm trying to rent out on Driveshare/Turo if you're interested in learning more about that let me know. The other Century is currently forsale as I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a car importing business and we'll be bringing in more cool cars and Toyota 4x4's and stuff like that so if you're interested in that we can have that conversation. Final vehicle which is what landed me here, is I have a 1992 Toyota Hilux Surf 2.4L Diesel, Automatic I think it might have a couple inch lift from a previous owner, wide body kit, 33's pretty much stock other than some engine work that has been done, I'll attach some pictures, paint is mostly garbage like a lot of older Toyota's unfortunately. So those are my 5 vehicles currently as a side note I would also recommend Grundy Insurance for those who have collector / imported vehicles even older Toyotas that aren't nice I got on their insurance with my Hilux Surf so clearly they're not that picky, but they also allow you to insure your daily drivers and trucks unlike Hagerty. Can't say enough good things about them as an insurance company I've unfortunately have had to use them fortunately not on any of my import vehicles but they did what they said they'd do and even above that in my opinion not trying to turn this into a sales pitch I have no affiliation but just wanted to share that bit of knowledge as it's good to invest in good protection to keep our beloved Toyotas and others on the road.
So, the unfortunate part of my Hilux which I'll tell the long story here since it's my introduction. Bought it on Cars and Bids in mid 2021 for about $9,800 thought cool not a terrible price. Went from here in Colorado to Phoenix AZ to pick it up, and I was naïve and bought it without really inspecting anything I get it out on the highway after purchasing it to drive it back home and it starts over heating, start looking closer it's leaking oil from front main seal, rear main seal, various other places oil leaks from, ended up having to leave it there, fly back to Colorado, then the next weekend drive down there with my truck and trailer, pick it up and drive back, got it home, found out the new custom Griffin radiator the owner had installed was ballooned, the vertical fluid channels whatever you call them in the radiator that separate the fins got enough pressure to expand and crushed the fins so it was only getting maybe 20-30% of the airflow it should have. Pulled the motor myself, started taking it apart, ordered parts I needed from Australia, Covid's pretty big by this time, my parts get stuck in customs for about 5-6 months. One box showed up like a month before the other box, and of course the 2nd box had the stuff I actually needed. So now it's winter time, don't have a heated shop area and I decide I'd take the motor to a shop in Fort Collins that agreed to take on the project just because they thought it'd be cool kind of a hey I'm in no rush work on this as you have extra time or whatever and just charge me by the hour. They were cool did it, put it back together for me with all of the new seals and motor mounts and head gasket and stuff I bought for it about 3k dollars in labor. Was running mostly okay when they got done other than a lack of power, would only go about 55-60 MPH max and even small hills out here in the planes would slow it down to 40-45 mph by the top. I thought well older small diesel maybe that's just kinda how it is I know they're not a power house at like 90 HP from the factory. Now, it's to the point it has even worse power, it's stalling out if you let the RPM's go to low so even shifting between drive and reverse if you don't rev it up and basically drop it into gear it'll stall out. So it's currently sitting and hasn't moved for awhile. Between buying it, having to go to AZ twice with fuel and last minute plane costs, parts, labor at the shop I took it to, various crap I'm probably 16-17k dollars into this stupid thing and sort of done with it mentally. But I would really like to save it as it's really a good basically 99% rust free vehicle judging by the paint has never been in an accident and repaired don't think it was close to any salt water because of the no rust. So it's a good platform to build off of but I'm stuck between just trying to find a new used engine / trans combo and throwing it in lets say I could get one for I don't know, 4-5k dollars I can do most all of the work putting it in myself and not have to pay much more for labor at a shop, Or, take it to a shop (or maybe, someone here is a backyard mechanic that can help me for cash wink wink) and spend the money to get it rebuilt again and running good but I don't know if the motor is still good after all it's been through without actually being re-machined. I had it at Revhard Motors in Denver for them to do an inspection and they concluded from my memory this was a year or longer ago that the head is not properly shimmed and so they'd be probably in the 3-4k dollar range to get that done plus as it goes at a mechanic other things pop up and you might as well do this and do that while you're there or something else is broken and needs fix then I'm 5 or 6 or 7k into it which I really don't want to be. So any advice on that would be greatly appreciated or if someone wrote me a $9,800 check which is what I paid for it I'd sell it to you and it can be your project instead of mine and you get everything I've bought for it. I personally think getting a new motor for it is the way to go as I can just drop it in (hopefully) and it'll run as a good Toyota should instead of fighting this one. So if someone wanted to buy my motor that's in there now so I can put that money towards another one and you can rebuild it yourself as a project for your Toyota or Jeep or rock crawler or whatever you have going on. I appreciate any advice on the subject or offers for service if you can help fix it up for me but paying shops their 120-150+ an hour rates is just too much money for me at the moment as I'm trying to get the car import thing going cash is king in that business so I need to not spend too much. But heck if you're a good mechanic and want 60 an hour cash maybe we can work that out if we can figure out what it needs done. Now I'm just rambling so I'll leave it at that, but hopeful one way or another I can maybe get this thing running again by late summer or early fall and maybe get into a couple trail rides with you guys as that's the main goal to have fun and enjoy this life and nature while we're still allowed to do so.
